BLM Thoughts.

[Achaius2nd]

Do you wanna take some time and go over the class with some of us in game? I'm not the greatest BLM but I don't even drop my AF or UI in the latest extreme fights and you gotta move in those. Lots of movement and out of instacasts? Transpose to UI, Scathe, use umbral soul to get everything back up. Plus the cast of F3 or B3 while in full stacks of the opposite is pretty quick, so you need a quick cast to up the tick do that. You gotta use sharpcast better. Thunder takes priority but having that backup F3 will help uptime immensely during moving phases. If there is a long animation that makes the boss invul, then umbral soul and restart your opener when they are targetable again. (These aren't the best but they are something)

Most of the time, if you do your opener right, ley lines lasts past the first movement mechanic so you can zip back to it and keep casting.

"So many times i've Switched to Ice and cast Ice 3 > Ice 4 only to still be at 6000 mp"

Did you use UI Paradox? By then you should have full mp. Also use UI Paradox as a movement skill during those mechanics.

[CKNovel]

As someone who has little raiding experience on BLM and just plays the job once every 2 years:
Is that amount of mobility even legal on BLM?

Since I didn't cared much, I tried to keep triple cast for movement rather than for the rotation, I'm not sure if it's still supposed to be part of the rotation.
Results? I often sat on 2 charges, dynamisation and swiftcast.

Even when actively using the tools, I was often sitting on 1 stack of triple cast.

[Achaius2nd]

It is quite possible. Using aetherial manipulation correctly lets you be a little greedy. Got in an extra spell, didn't have time to sprint out, but the healer was in the correct spot. Zip to them. Between the lines to get back to my leylines across the arena. BLM can be very mobile is you know how to properly maintain your rotation and adapt. Lots of timing and knowing about how many times you can cast before your ticker runs out or a mechanic.

2 triple cast = 6 instacasts
2 Sharpcasts = 2 proc insta casts
Swift Cast = 1 instacast
Amplifier = gain 1 insta polyglot skill
Polyglot = Xenoglossy is instant
UF3 & UI3 makes the next opposite element almost instant.

Even when using my instas for rotations, I found myself with a charge eventually during heavy movement mechanics

[LilyPendragon]

Step 1. Even IF I cared to use materia on any job it wouldn't be blm lol. I don't enjoy playing and only got it to max level.

I mean I hate to say it then, but your opinion is kinda irrelevant. It takes more than levelling a job to 90 to actually understand it. BLM has a ridiculous amount of mobility tools now, to the point where we're almost more mobile than Red Mage (admittedly in bursts of it, rather than a consistent every other GCD). It has 2 Charges of triplecast, swiftcast, sharpcast charges every 30 seconds and has 2 charges (and procs last for so long now that you practically always have one available), instacast paradox in ice, and it's two zipping moves. For everything else there's slidecasting.

Step 2. I do abuse my movement tools. So much so that I run out. I also have no clue when you are meant to use Sharpcast and tend to ignore it since the long cast times make it difficult to weave Sharpcast in. Aetherial Manipulation is horrible on controller. Between the lines is nice but it's only there when you have Leylines which is once very 120s.

You use sharpcast as the first thing in your opener, and then weave it every time you switch from Fire to Ice (as this is always a short cast). Aetherial Manipulation is fine to use on a controller, even more so if you run with premades and thus know someone you can trust to be in the right place, and have them at the top of your party list.

Step 3. It is impossible to memorize every fight in this game. If you are only playing BLM in say Savage or Ultimate then sure. Memorizing the fight would be necessary but that's any job imo.

I mean that's literally the point in Black Mage? Ask almost anyone what the difficulty of Black Mage is, and it's always that they have to have a good understanding of the fight mechanics in order to maintain uptime, possibly more than any other job.


I mean there are some legitimate issues with BLM, namely the absolutely horrendous dropoff of potency for Foul, and the cooldown change for Leylines blows, but most of the problems you listed can be overcome by just improving at the job.

As someone who has little raiding experience on BLM and just plays the job once every 2 years:
Is that amount of mobility even legal on BLM?

Since I didn't cared much, I tried to keep triple cast for movement rather than for the rotation, I'm not sure if it's still supposed to be part of the rotation.
Results? I often sat on 2 charges, dynamisation and swiftcast.

Even when actively using the tools, I was often sitting on 1 stack of triple cast.

If played optimally, you should only have one extra use of triplecast over a whole fight, and that's during the opener, as it should just be slammed on cooldown from then on; however that's in a perfect world when you know you can get away with it.

[Arohk]

Speaking of switch to Ice, why doesn't switching just restore all your mp. So many times i've Switched to Ice and cast Ice 3 > Ice 4 only to still be at 6000 mp when I switch back to Fire.

you need to throw in your Xenoglossy during Ice Phase then, it will always go to full MP

[battleshadow66]

My only real complaint about BLM is the thunder spells. Do we really need ST and AOE versions of them? Can we not just have single version that does the same as ST but with reduced AOE like everything else? lol

[Burningskull]

My only real complaint about BLM is the thunder spells. Do we really need ST and AOE versions of them? Can we not just have single version that does the same as ST but with reduced AOE like everything else? lol

I kinda wish the Thunder spells were oGCD and didn't have a cast time. But I hate DoTs.

[Darkobra]

I've only really played black mage and it does hurt at the start learning a fight and knowing when you can go full attack. Once you do, you can melt things. The new skills and changes have DEFINITELY made things far easier for us too.

I enjoy other classes. I thought red mage was quite fun too. I'm just black mage at my core.

[OtakuSempai]

Just personal opinions here: I HATE it.

There is just so much movement in this game the fact that BLM has such long cast times even with things like Triple Cast or Swift Cast, they just are not enough. Often while leveling I found myself running out of movement abilities cause there was just so much movement on bosses.

The fact the Umbral Ice and Astral Fire buffs still have timers on them when so many timers on buffs were removed or extended is baffling to me. And if they run out your entire rotation just jams to a halt more than any other job. Personally I think the timers should be removed and the interaction of the spells enhanced. Like Fire > Fire 3 > Fire 4 or maybe Fire has 50% chance to proc Fire 3 and the same for Fire 3 and 4 or just something. People complain about Ruin spam on SMN but isn't just using Fire 4 twice or 3 times only to switch to Fire 1 until you run out of MP then switch and do the same with Ice the same as Ruin spam? Maybe they could make Scaith add 5s or refresh your Ice and Fire buffs or something?

Speaking of switch to Ice, why doesn't switching just restore all your mp. So many times i've Switched to Ice and cast Ice 3 > Ice 4 only to still be at 6000 mp when I switch back to Fire. And then there is Transpose. Why doesn't it give you as many stacks as you had or upgrade into Umbral Soul and just have Umbral Soul work even when you are in Fire.

Why does Flare have a, what is it 3.5s cast time? When Despair is only 2.5s. You end up spamming Flare 2 or 3 times at the end of your AoE rotation and the cast time is sooo horrendous some things either die before you cast and you can't switch targets during a cast so it gets interrupted and you have to start all over or just switch to Ice and start the AoE rotation all over.

Paradox is interesting and fun mechanic that gives you a reason to use Ice 1 during your Ice phase and is a good evolution to have to the switch from Fire and Ice for mp mechanic.

Anyway these are just my thoughts on BLM. Having suffered it to 90 I'll probably never play it over SMN or RDM for my dailies or anything. However I do hope other people enjoy it. Hope it fills the BLM fantasy for them like SMN does for me now. And I just wanted to vent a little. Thanks for listening.

Oh good god. This is precisely why all the jobs are braindead now, because people can't handle a little skill ceiling in their gameplay. God forbid.

I would stick with SMN and your 2 button rotation with fancy particle effects. Since that seems more of what you're interested in than actually gameplay.

[Madoka]

Try the Paradox rotation out